DIAMONDS

A tale from Italy via Australia that takes the shine off of diamonds.

Carolina, a little, inquisitive White girl, watches Mama don her diamond earrings as she prepares for a fancy-dress occasion. Carolina asks what the earrings cost. Mama doesn’t know; Uncle Winston gave them to her “because he loves me very much.” Carolina’s quick-fire questions and Mama’s terse answers reveal that Winston purchased them in Antwerp, Belgium, but the jewels were mined in Africa, where Amina, their Black nanny, comes from. When Carolina learns that Amina has no diamonds, Mama abruptly ends the questioning, grabs her clutch, and leaves. After Amina puts her to bed, Carolina dreams, starting with Amina’s digging in a diamond mine, where armed men kill and brutalize the miners, after which a sequence of black-and-white scenes depicts the journey of the gems, which pass through many middlemen, each of whom receives a cut of the profits. Finally, the earrings land in Mama’s hands in a little purple box (the only purple object in the illustrations—notably, a royal color), to her obvious delight. When Carolina awakens crying, it is Amina, not Mama, who comforts her. Greder’s haunting, dark, charcoal-and-pastel images capture the devastation, greed, and secrecy that accompany the diamond trade. The juxtaposition of Amina’s tenderness against Mama’s stern silencing of Carolina’s probing questions speaks volumes. Three afterwords reveal further truths about this destructive industry. (This book was reviewed digitally with 8-by-23-inch double-page spreads viewed at 23.6% of actual size.)

This picture book about a gemstone composed of nightmares isn’t for little ones.